Christmas windows

Last Sunday after church, we went to admire the window display put up by the Grand Magasins, Galleries Lafayette and Printemps. Galleries' was on a white theme. The boys did not take long to view from one end to the other end. 

We then went into Galleries to look at the center display. The decoration above the bags section were grand. I liked it.

Under the big white Christmas tree was the Chanel stand. Other than Chanel No 5, there were other Chanel number perfume and the whole area smelled so good. There were many people so we did not stay long.

We continued towards Printemps and the boys stayed longer in front of each window. Though it was all about mode with Jimmy Choo cited everywhere, it was still fun for the kids to watch the moving puppets.

We stopped by FNAC to get some Christmas gifts and Seb got the boys a few books.

After that, we went to meet up the boys' nanny, Ah Yi. We catch up once a while. She made the boys apple and pear compote and bought them their favourite snacks, dried prunes and nuts. Too bad the boys could not communicate with her in Chinese. They spoke to her in French. A1 even tried to speak to her in English. Just made me laugh. I explained to him Ah Yi was from China and did not understand english.

That summed up our Sunday in Paris. There were many security guards checking bags at the entrance of every store. The thought that we might be attacked surfaced in my mind but I pushed it aside. We do have to live our lives as normal as possible despite the random violence.

Bateau Parisienne

I am always writing old news. Being busy with family and work, I do not have much time to update this blog.

So, the boys got invited for a birthday party in Paris in October. Denise's boy, J invited his classmates and my boys for his 7th birthday. We were invited for a ride along the river Seine followed by a birthday tea party. While waiting to board the boat, I made balloon swords for the boys. They had fun running around on a sunny late summer day.

The boat ride, Enchanted Cruise, was catered to children. There were two elves singing and explaining the major landmarks along the Seine. They were highly entertaining. They even produced a music CD which could be bought at the end of the cruise.

After the cruise, we ate cake and J opened his many presents. Everyone was happy especially the lucky birthday boy.

Paris attack

At 8am yesterday, our new dining table arrived. I had just woke up and was writing the cheque to pay the delivery guy while asking 'Why did you arrive so early? Wasn't it plan for 9am?'. He replied 'We have deliveries to make in Paris and it is a complicated day.' Seb and I asked 'Why?'. The delivery guy told us to watch TV. There were several terrorists attacks on Friday night. We have no TV at home. I switched on my mobile phone and saw many messages from concerned friends and family in Singapore asking if we were alright. I was shocked. I cried though I had not seen the news yet. My worse nightmare had happened. Innocent people were killed and injured by terrorists in Paris.

I spent a good half an hour assuring friends and family we were okay on social media. Then I started to read the news on internet. Public areas were closed. However, I had to drive a friend who had injured herself to work nearby Paris that evening. I told Seb we would be careful. After all, we won't be in central Paris. I called up Denise. I was supposed to bring her son's bicycle to her tomorrow when visiting Palais de Decouvert in Paris. We decided to avoid Paris with the kids for the moment.
Since I had to wait 2.5 hours for my friend to knock off from work, I suggested to bring the bicycle to Denise. She agreed. In the end, we met up for dinner before dropping the bicycle at her place in Paris. When we were deciding what to have for dinner, Denise asked if I preferred to eat out or do take away. I told her I preferred to eat in a restaurant. Doing take away to her place and having to find parking in Paris was such a chore. She asked if I was not scare. I had not thought about it. What she asked was justifiable. Just the night before, diners were killed randomly. Though we felt safe in Boulogne-Billancourt, it was so near Paris and crazy people could be anywhere. We both agreed that we should not live our lives in fear. We had a good catch up over dinner. We talked a bit about the Paris attack. She used to go to one of the attacked restaurants often as she had lived in that area.

There are atrocities acts happening in this world. Not just in Paris on friday the 13th. Still, this hits so near home. I used to live nearby the Stade de France where three suicide bombers killed themselves. We have to pray for world peace. Not just for Paris. My next fear is division in this country where people mistrust Muslims. Not all muslims are terrorists. And I doubt this would be the last attack. This is a difficult period for France.

Happy new year and Jeff Koons

Happy new year 2015. In France, we have until the end of January to wish everyone a happy new year. So let me take this 31 January 2015 to wish you readers a good year ahead. A month is almost over and I hope you are already enjoying this new year.

Over here, things are good. My boys are coughing but not too sick to miss school. A1 told me half his class were not in last friday. A2's class was no better. There were many people down with stomach flu and the common cold. 

The highlight of this month was Epiphany. A2 loves King's cake so much that we had it every weekend (Saturday and Sunday) and I even made it twice. The whole family had the chance to be King or Queen. That just goes to show how many King's cakes we had. 

Another highlight was my company's annual dinner. Before dinner, we attended an organised tour of the exhibition of Jeff Koons at the museum of Centre Pompidou. With the guide's explaination, it helped us to understand better this modern artist and businessman. 

Below, he used stainless steel to make these statues. They were so real that I would love to touch the inflated rabbit to make sure it was hard as steel.

 This hanging heart below weighed a ton though it looked empty and light.

 

 This balloon dog was really lovely to look at. His orange counterpart fetched his master a record of US$58.4 million.

 This float was covered in aluminium and then repainted to make it look like a plastic float. Well, Jeff Koon has 100 artists working for him. I am sure it is easy for him to get his workers to execute his genius ideas.

I do like some of his works and his ideas. However, knowing that he has workers executing his art pieces, I find him more of a businessman than an art master.

If you are interested to read more about his works, I found this post talking about Jeff Koon's art show in New York. The one at Centre Pompidou was similar.click here to see the site.

Je suis Charlie

I could not believe it but this is real. France had been attacked at its core, the freedom of expression. It seemed like a dream, a nightmare but it was not. Every word in this song was so true that I teared.

I live in France for 11 years. I came to understand that the freedom of expression is very strong in France and that the French makes joke out of any situation. Really any situation, even in bad bad situations. This is the unique french humour.

If you can't accept, look away. No need to get all violent.

I leave you with the video and the english translation. 

English Translation
I'm not scared of you the extremist
You who kills our journalists
Do you believe you're a crusader
When you kill our policemen (guardians of peace)
Do you think you really have balls
When you kill your own brother
When on the ground he begged for mercy
It's enough I had enough

(chorus)
If you ask where is Charlie
He will be forever in our minds
A bullet shot for a pencil strike
You are dishonoring your religion

Go to Syria for Djihad
And come back for killing
Is that your carrier plan?
Do you think about the families behind?
Did you feel threatened by a pencil strike?
Satires in a newspaper?
Was it worth the death sentence?
(chorus)
You come coldly from Reims
armed and ready like a prince
Shouting the name of your God
Who wont even want you once dead
Respect of differences
Is what makes the beauty of France
This morning you ruined everything
It is hate that you have spread
(chorus)
I don't care where you pray
Don't attack the press
Because when war rages there
You're happy that there are cameras
Don't talk of religion
This excuse is simply bogus
I don't think there's a book
Asking you to shoot others
(chorus)
Even if I want to make a call of arms
I don't put everyone in the same basket
It is starting with an amalgam
That we create swastikas
I'm not scared, I am French
And it is standing that you will find me
Against you I draw my pen
Because I am also Charlie Hebdo
(chorus)
Trampling our freedom of speech
It means to attack our whole nation
We're 66 million and we tell you
Me too I am Charlie

Charlie Hebdo, a satirical news journal with not a big following had been attacked on 07 Jan 2015. Two gunmen went into the office and killed several people. The gunmen initally entered the wrong building and shot dead the receptionist. When they were leaving the office, they shot dead two policemen. A total of 12 victims.

Blessing in disguise

Yesterday, Seb left at 5am to catch a plane to Italy. As it was a monday and I had to go to work in La Defense, the boys' grandparents came at 6.15am to take care of them and to bring them to school.

Yesterday was also the day where the french government applied a new measure to combat the seemingly unhealthy air pollution in Paris and its surrounding. Only cars with odd number car plates were allowed to circulate into Paris and its neighbouring areas. Over the weekend, public transport in Paris was free. While I applauded the free public transport gesture, the one on alternate days circulation for cars was just not feasible. Many people lived very far from Paris in small towns where there was no public transport to connect them to their offices in Paris. They were also people living in Paris who needed to drive to their offices outside of Paris.

I would have no issue going to work on monday as my car had an odd number car plate. But alas, when I started my car at 6.25am, it won't start. The battery was flat. A1 played in my car on friday. I had driven to do grocery shopping earlier on before picking up the boys. On Sat morning, I realised that the signal light was on and quickly unlocked the car and switched off the indicator light. Over the weekend, we used Seb's car and I did not check if the signal light had used up the battery.

The grandparents tried to help me start the car. We could not jumpstart the car as we did not have any cables for that. As it was very early in the morning, I waited until 8am to call for help. I had no choice but to work from home. I felt bad that my in-laws came over for nothing having to wake up so early.

I called the VW service center where I serviced the car. I was surprised to learn that as I had used a VW service center, I was entitled to free assistance within 24months from the last reviewing of the car. I called up the VW assistance center and in an hour's time, a service man came. He took a portable battery and cables from his car and jumpstarted my car. We then let the engine  run for 15mins. I was told to drive for 10mins to charge up the battery further. I explained to the service man that with my car plate number, I would have gone to work in Paris if not for the flat battery. He told me that there were blockages on the main roads to Paris along the highway and it was a mess entering Paris. As usual, the french did not care about this rule and even number car plates vehicles tried to enter and had to be turned back by the traffic police. There were reluctant drivers trying to convince the police and creating jams.

So it was a blessing in disguise that the car did not start. Still, I learnt my lessons. No more letting the boys play in the car without my supervision even for a few minutes. And always go to the VW service center for car reviewing. It came in handy this time.

The decree for alternate days driving was called off. The pollution level had returned to a normal level. Furthermore, I think the authorities had realised the mess they created yesterday and the unhappiness of the drivers affected. As for me, I will go to office on thurs. Seb will be back tomorrow. If the decree continues, I will use Seb's car on thurs as his has an even number car plate. Or to avoid the mess on the road, I can also drive to Rambouillet train station and take the trains to La Defense. Just that, it would take me 1.5hours to come home instead of the usual hour.

To end off, I went to fetch the boys from school yesterday on FOOT!

First sunday of March

Last sunday was the last day of school holiday. Usually, the boys did not have chinese lesson during school holiday but that sunday was an exception. We were expecting heavy traffic to Paris in the afternoon from the holiday makers returning back to the capital. So we decided to go to Paris in the morning.

 

The night before, I suggested to Seb that we could visit a museum. There are a few free museums. As the boys are young with short attention span, I do not want to spend money visiting museum. So Seb had no choice but to check on internet. On the website of the musem of Louvre, we noted that it was free on the first sunday of the month from Nov to March. I was thrilled. And that sealed it. We visited le Louvre.

 

On Sunday, we parked the car near the chinese school and took the Metro to Pyramid station. The boys were excited with the train ride. We had Japanese at rue Sainte Anne and the boys ate well. They drank miso soup with the tiny tofu cubes and seaweed and all. They ate gyoza (饺子) and fried noodles.

 

We then strolled to Louvre. We passed security and decided to visit the Egyptian collection. Each time I came to le Louvre, I visited the same painting collections as my visitors wanted to see Mona Lisa.

The Egyptian  collection was amazing. Anyway, all collections in the Louvre are Amazing.

 

After about an hour, the boys had enough of mummies. We left and headed to the Jardin des Tuileries. I was surprised to see fake branded products on sale openly.

There was a playground in the garden and the boys had fun. There was this big, high structure for older kids. That did not deter the boys from climbing up the structure. At 3pm, we walked back to the Metro station and headed back to Chinatown for the boys' chinese lesson. It was a fruitful day.

It has been a week since the weather is sunny. The cold winter days are over soon. Vive le soleil.

Aquarium at Palais de la porte Dorée

On 30 Dec 2012, we went to the Aquarium at Palais de la porte Dorée. I did not even know it existed. I always thought there was only one aquarium in Paris which we visited on A1's birthday. As Ah Yi, the children's nanny lived in the 12th district and we were visiting her, I decided to find an activity for the boys nearby. That was how I came upon this aquarium on internet.

 

 When we arrived, we were surprised that entrance was free as the place was upgrading its ticketing system. There were not many people and the boys were able to run around looking at all the fishes.

 

 Below was a tank of arowanas.  

 

Here was a tank of marine lives.

There was also a dwelling for turtles and tortoises.

 

The boys looking at the impressive fishes. Some were bigger than A2.

One of my favourite fish: tetra. I used to have them in Singapore.

Look at the sting rays below. The white spots striked out on the black colour. Unique.

 

There was also a big rainforest dwelling for the alligators.

This aquarium was smaller than the one we went to before but I actually liked it better as it was less crowded. There were many pretty species.

When we were done, we met up with Ah Yi for tea and had a good time catching up. As usual, she made chinese dumplings for me (the best I ever tasted), stir fried vegetables with seitan for Seb and braised chicken drumsticks for the boys.

It was a fruitful day.

Jardin d'Acclimatation

This was our third visit to Jardin d'Acclimatation and as usual, the park was crowded and we enjoyed ourselves. This time round, we took time to visit the whole park.

There was a Korean style park.

There were a few playgrounds planted all over the park. The boys had fun in this well designed playground. The setup was a maze and the kids could go under or climb over to get around.

Beside the playground was a water park. It was a hot day and there were many kids but I did not bring extra clothes for the boys. So they just wet their hands and legs at the bank of the water park.

 We then walked around to visit the animals in the park.

There were donkeys, the one above was huge; sheeps, cows, goats and lots of different kind of hens.

A2 had taken over his brother's tricycle while A1 was on his balance bicycle.

One of the big attractions of the park was the village of fun rides. There were many choices for young kids like merry-go-rounds, mini roller-coaster, bumper cars etc... A1 is not a fan of such rides so we could easily walk past this area.

Aquarium de Paris

To celebrate A1's birthday, we headed to Aquarium de Paris to look at fishes. Most tourists do not know or may not be interested to know but there is an aquarium in Paris just in front of Eiffel Tower.

The Eiffel tower is taken by the side of the entrance of the aquarium.

The boys went 'oh' and 'ah' when they saw the beautiful fishes. There were all kinds of fishes and even a huge tank with sharks. The tanks were all beautifully decorated with corals, rocks and a mix of colorful fishes. I felt as we were in a submarine looking at nature. 

There was a diver pulling out algaes among the corals. The gardener of the sea.

This aquarium was not big and in about an hour, we finished our visit. We did stay in one mini cinema to watch documentary and kid cartoon about the environment.

This aquarium was a good outing for the kids especially during this early spring where it was windy and rainy. We felt warm in this aquarium and were glad that we dropped our coats at the cloak room. However for Singaporean tourists, this can be a miss. The Underwater World in Singapore at Sentosa is better in terms of variety if my memory does not fail me. The aquarium in Brest is bigger and hopefully we will check that out the next time we go Brittany.

New year's day

On new year's day, we ended up in Paris 1st arrondissement as we would like to visit the exposition of Babar. However, the Art and Deco museum was closed like the rest of the museums nearby including the Louvre.

We walked to the nearby courtyard at Palais Royal. Les Deux Plateaux, more commonly known as the Colonnes de Buren, is an art installation in the courtyard of the Palais Royal.

The boys had fun discovering the colonnes and even climbed up on those small ones. We played with them chasing them around and amused ourselves until it started to drizzle. We had to call it a day. Nevertheless, the boys enjoyed themselves.

Below is the entrance of the metro station Palais Royal. It is pretty unique isn't it?